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Sheridan effects may lessen; exiting high volume season
Sheridan Press, September 22, 2001
By Pat Blair
Senior Staff reporter
Reprinted with permission

Sheridan's tourism business is feeling aftershocks from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., but it's too early to say whether the effects will be long-term, Judy Taylor said this week.

Taylor is marketing director for Sheridan Center Best Western, a member of the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce and vice chair of the city's Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Soon after terrorists crashed commercial airplanes into the Wor1d Trade Center and the Pentagon last week, the Sheridan Center received one cancellation from an overseas tour group.

"They couldn't get here," Taylor said. "But," she added, "at least one tour bus stopped here because of the attack."

The tour group was trying to get to Chicago from Vancouver, British Columbia, where they had been stuck for four days. Taylor said. They called the Sheridan Center and said they needed a place to stay for the night Monday. They asked if we had room.

"They wouldn't have stopped here, except for the terrorist attacks and subsequent events," Taylor said.

She said the Sheridan Center had one convention booked this month - of Wyoming Girls Scout leaders - and that is still a go.

"They're from within the state, so they're driving here anyway," Taylor said.

Debbie Disney, general manager of Sheridan's Holiday Inn & Convention Center, said they have experienced some loss of business due to flight cancellations over the past week.

"This has caused a negative short-term impact," Disney wrote in a statement faxed to The Press Thursday morning.

"I do not presently have information on projections or measurements we can expect on future business," Disney wrote. "At this time we have not received any cancellations outside of September" as a result of the tragedy.

Penny Becker, executive director of the city CVB, and Carole Perkins, executive director of the Sheridan County Chamber of Commerce, said they do not expect last week's events to significantly affect the county's tourism business, at least over the long term.

"We are going out of the high season for tourism - and we are fortunate in that," Becker said.

Additionally, she added, Sheridan County's key tourism market is the "driving market. We feel that won't be as affected as flights."

CVB board members do not anticipate significant losses in winter tourism, she said.

She said state tourism officials are concerned about potential losses in the international market and that could impact Sheridan County's tourism next year.

"It is a concern," Becker said. "International travel to Sheridan County has been up; we have been reaching the international market."

At the same time, she added, "we don't see that as a downfall at this point in time," especially as airlines implement new safety restrictions.

The good news for Sheridan County, Perkins said, is that "our tourism market doesn't depend on the airlines. Foreign travel may he somewhat impacted, but not as much now as if the disaster had happened earlier in the season."

Perkins said the morning of Sept. 11, two Japanese tour buses stopped at the Sheridan Information Center off Fifth Street.

"They were like the rest of us" watching the images of the World Trade Center exploding into flames and collapsing, Perkins said. "They just stood in astonishment."

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